United Way shifts funding priorities

The United Way of Henderson County says it has moved beyond being a charity and is now assuming the role of a community change agent.

By RENEE BINDEWALDTimes-News Staff Writer

The United Way of Henderson County says it has moved beyond being a charity and is now assuming the role of a community change agent.Beginning with its 2014-15 funding cycle, the nonprofit has shifted its focus to encourage agencies to address by 2025 six community goals:-- Increasing kindergarten readiness by 65 percent,-- Improving school success of economically disadvantaged students, -- Decreasing the number of individuals living in poverty by 30 percent,-- Increasing affordable housing,-- Reducing the percentage of obese adults and children, -- And encouraging healthy youth behaviors.

United Way Marketing and Communications Coordinator Kristen Freeman said that in the past, programs and organizations received funding based on their ability to address a community need, but there were no measurable results required.“Beginning with the 2014-15 funding cycle, we asked all agencies to look at how they could not only continue addressing a community need, but also partner with us at achieving one of our six target goals as described in HC 2025,” Freeman said in an email to the Times-News.Executive Director Ruth Birge said the United Way spent 20 months working with the school system, hospitals, local doctors and housing entities to identify their biggest areas of need.“We actually collaborated with all of those folks and tried to find exactly the areas that they were trying to work on,” Birge said. “For example, it is extremely important to the school system to have children ready to attend kindergarten, so that's when we did 'kindergarten readiness.' We found out there was about a 10 percent discrepancy in economically disadvantaged children in reading when they did the testing in the third and the eighth grade; that's something they wanted to dwell on, so that's when we came up with 'school success.'”With changes to the job market locally, many have transitioned from manufacturing to service industry jobs, which Birge said has created a real need for financial literacy and security, since many families are earning less than they were before.“On the health side, we went to prevention,” Birge said. “We really thought that we needed to be working at prevention; with heart disease and diabetes rampant, we really thought that that's what needed to be done.”Birge said United Way is focused on education and prevention, which she hopes will lead to reaching its HC 2025 community goals, and United Way will continue to support basic needs and crisis support services.“If we don't teach kids to read and we don't keep people healthy so they can actually go get a job and take care of themselves, then what exactly is it we're doing? So that's where HC 2025 came in,” Birge said.Many Henderson County nonprofit leaders say they have been preparing for the changes in funding that come along with HC 2025, and have been working to identify other sources of funding to supplement any reduction in money from the United Way. Because of UWHC's focus on the six goals in HC 2025, some organizations will see less funding for 2014-15 for programs that do not align with those goals.UWHC received more than $1.7 million in requests for funding this year, but was only able to allocate the $914,528 received in donations.“This means that on average, an agency requesting funding for the 2014-15 year only received around 50 percent of their request,” Freeman said in an email to the Times-News. “Some agencies did not receive any allocated funds, while others received more than 50 percent. Ensuring that the limited number of dollars that UWHC has available to allocate is invested in programs that can make the greatest impact in our community as a whole has become the main priority of UWHC.”

Among the nonprofits that received less overall funding from the United Way for the coming year are the Children and Family Resource Center, Boys & Girls Club of Henderson County, Thrive, the Free Clinics and Four Seasons Compassion for Life.The directors of those agencies said they anticipated the funding shift associated with HC 2025 and are working to develop other fundraising sources.Elisha Freeman, executive director of the Children and Family Resource Center, said UWHC's funding only makes up about 8 to 10 percent of her agency's overall $1.2 million budget. Although that money is huge for the programs it serves, like many nonprofits in the area, CFRC has a stream of revenue from private donations as well as grants to help cover costs. This year, Freeman said the center has increased its funding goal by 23 percent and hopes to raise $400,000, which is back to CFRC's pre-recession goal amount. The increase in fundraising would cover the gaps in funding between all of its revenue streams.“The demand (for our programs) is still really high, and there is not as much recovery there, but we saw the average gift size of our donors increase last year from the year before,” Freeman said. “So I think for some parts of our community, the recovery has happened, and it's a little bit slower for those people in need.”Kevin Lauritsen, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Henderson County, said the club is starting to identify individuals and grant makers who will be able to help them fill funding gaps to continue serving the club's children and families.“The next big fundraiser for us is the Women's High Tea in September, and then we've got the Fazio Invitational Golf Tournament at the very end of September,” Lauritsen said. “Those have been on our plate for years and those are the two biggies coming up.”Thrive Executive Director Kristen Martin said she's been working with UWHC for the past two years in preparation for HC 2025, and the two organizations have had a very open relationship about the shift in UWHC's priorities for its funding. Since Thrive primarily serves adults through its Abundant Wellness Program, Martin said she had anticipated a reduction in funding, and the nonprofit is planning a new fundraiser for the spring as well as identifying other grant opportunities.“Children are our future, as the saying goes. If we can make it so folks don't need our services that we have in the future then, obviously, I would love for us to not be treating adults with severe mental illness that are still illiterate,” Martin said. “I am their nonprofit campaign chair, for the United Way, and we're still very much collaborative and working together.”Pat Sells, acting director of the Free Clinics, said that even though the clinics experienced a reduction from previous years in funding from the United Way - and saw an increase in the number of those needing their services – the nonprofit will continue to provide the same level of service to the community this year. There will be no changes to its offerings.“It's not a very big difference,” Sells said. “It is a very small part of our budget, so we're applying for funding through other sources, and we anticipate receiving those.”Sells said the Free Clinics are currently gearing up for a summer concert by the Kruger Brothers, a band with bluegrass, folk and classical music elements, playing at 4 p.m. Aug. 14 at the Champion Hills Clubhouse, which will offer a light supper buffet and cash bar.Dot Moyer, board chairman for Four Seasons Compassion for Life, said UWHC and Four Seasons work very closely together, and Four Seasons fully understands and supports UWHC's efforts.Four Seasons' Heart Song program, a bereavement program for youth, did not meet the goals of HC 2025 and in turn did not receive UWHC funding for 2014-15. Through the program, children learn about their grief from the loss of someone close to them and develop strategies that help them work through the process. Heart Songs provides education about children's grief processes and offers support for grieving children in individual and group settings. All programs offered by Heart Songs are free of charge.“The Heart Songs program is really one that we're trying to get the community to understand how important it is to provide these services to children who have had these major losses, and a lot of them are not our patients' families,” Moyer said. “They are just children in the community who have lost someone in a car accident or any number of things who never really come into Four Seasons until we go out and find them and give them the services that they need.”Moyer said Four Seasons would like to grow the program and intends to do so as it looks to garner community support.For more information on Heart Songs or to register, call Susan Bumgarner at 233-0334.Another organization that had a dramatic decrease in United Way funding is the Salvation Army.Volunteer Coordinator Cheryl Gudger-Thompson said that because of two changes to the Salvation Army's leadership this past year, the organization missed its opportunity to apply for UWHC funding.“It was out of the United Way's hands, and we're already working diligently with them to get into the next cycle. We had looked at the 2025 plan and understand how that's going and support that,” Gudger-Thompson said.She said they are looking into new grants as well as the possibility of a new fundraiser.“We're hoping for local donations because we're going to need them,” Gudger-Thompson said. “We're hopefully going to do some extra food drives as well to try to get more food in, because that is one of the places it would have covered is our food pantry.”___Reach Bindewald at renee.bindewald@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7890.